At all events, the time set for the Prinkipos proposal was February 15.  At that time nobody had acted in a definite, uncompromising matter.  It therefore fell to the ground.

There was a further discussion as to what should be done.  The peace conference was still of the opinion that it was impossible to hope to conquer the Soviet Government by force of arms, because in the latter part of that report, which I did not read to the committee, there was expressed very forcibly the opinion of Mr. Lloyd George, that the populations at home would not stand it.  Therefore they desired to follow up further the line of making peace.

About that time I was working particularly closely on the Russian affairs.  I had had a number of discussions with everyone concerned in it, and on the very day that Col.  House and Mr. Lansing first asked me to undertake this mission to Russia, I was dining at Mr. Lloyd George’s apartment to discuss Russian affairs with his secretaries, so that I had a fair idea of the point of view of everyone in Paris.

I further, before I went, received urgent instructions from Secretary Lansing if possible to obtain the release of Consul Treadwell, who had been our consul in Petrograd and had been transferred to Tashkent, and had been detained by the local Soviet Government and had been kept there several months.  He was one of our Government officers they had seized.  Mr. Lansing ordered me to do everything I could to obtain his release.

I further, before I went, asked Col.  House certain specific questions in regard to what, exactly, the point of view of our Government was on this subject, what we were ready to do, and I think it perhaps might be important to detail a brief resume of this conversation.  The idea was this:  Lloyd George had gone over to London on February 9, as I remember, to try to adjust some labor troubles.  He, however, still insisted that the Prinkipos proposal must be renewed or some other peace proposal must be made, and I arranged a meeting between him and Col.  House, which was to take place, I believe, on February 24, at which time they were to prepare a renewal of the Prinkipos proposal, and they were both prepared to insist that it be passed against any opposition of the French.

I arranged this meeting through Mr. Philip Kerr, Mr. Lloyd George’s confidential assistant.  However, on the 19th day of the month, Mr. Clemenceau was shot, and the next day Mr. Lloyd George telephoned over from London to say that as long as Clemenceau was wounded and was ill, he was boss of the roost, and that anything he desired to veto would be immediately wiped out and therefore it was no use for him and Col.  House, as long as Clemenceau was ill, to attempt to renew the Prinkipos proposal, as Clemenceau would simply have to hold up a finger and the whole thing would drop to the ground.  Therefore, it was decided that I should go at once to Russia to attempt to obtain from the Soviet Government an exact statement of the terms on which they were ready to stop fighting.  I was ordered if possible to obtain that statement and have it back in Paris before the President returned to Paris from the United States.  The plan was to make a proposal to the Soviet Government which would certainly be accepted.